Interior deputy tours St. Mary Diversion, holds roundtable

CUT BANK - Sen. Steve Daines held a roundtable event in Monday with Department of Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tim Petty and others to discuss the importance of the St. Mary's Milk River System.

Daines said he and Petty toured the St. Mary Diversion Monday, and found it very informative.

The St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works has been shut down since Drop 5, at the end of the 29-mile system, washed out and collapsed May 17.

"The two things that we need is: One a quick reconstruction of the Drop both 2 and 5, and that's the first priority," Daines said, "and the second, of course, is to ensure that this never happens again where you lose an irrigation season for a good chunk of it. ... We are talking about 140,00 acres of crop land, 18,000 water users, municipalities and tribes."

Daines is campaigning for re-election and faces Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and Green Party candidate Wendie Fredrickson in the November election.

Daines said Monday that the project supplies 90 percent of the water from the Milk River Basin during a dry year and provides food for more than 1 million people, he said.

"It's truly the lifeline for the Hi-Line, and we saw that today as we walked and saw each of the drops,"  he added. "... I know this event has brought a lot of uncertainty to folks on the Hi-Line and a lot of concerns."

They have been fighting a long time to get legislation to preclude this event from happening, he said.

He said a lot of work has to be done and wants to ensure it doesn't happen again.

"Just thinking and reflecting on where we were today and how far it carries water to such an incredible irrigation and both industrial and municipal requirements - that water travels a long way," Petty said. "... Just being out here to understand the challenges that you have all the time to make that work, so that you can have resources in one area and you have to pull it from another area, and just the creativity. I mean, over 100 years, I mean we were looking at engineering designs of just the thinking and creativity of such a long time and that's part of your heritage, and you have to work through that."

He said a priority he works on is rural water.

There are multiple projects he will be working on with Department of Interior Missouri Basin Regional Director Brent Esplin, who works on the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico, Petty said.

"We're here for several days just focusing on Montana, but this was a big one - this is the one that I've heard about, I wanted to get out," Petty said.

A spokesperson for Rep. Greg Gianforte R-Mont., Tripp McKemey apologized for Gianforte's absence at the meeting.

Gianforte is not running for his seat in the U.S. House and instead faces Democratic Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, who co-chairs the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group trying to get the entire system rebuilt, and Green Party candidate Robert Barb and Libertarian candidate Lyman Bishop in gubernatorial election in November.

McKemey said Gianforte recently spoke about St. Mary Diversion during a House of Representatives Natural Resources subcommittee hearing.

Outside of the drops, McKemey said, the focus should go on the diversion.

"Which is included in extraordinary maintenance, still a very big chunk of change and something that I think good senators, legislation as well as Greg is in the House is trying to switch that cost share as well to make that reasonable," he said. "So I think that's one that we want to continue to push, the drops are the immediate focus, but the novelty side of the diversion is very important in this project as well."

Work progresses in Congress to change the funding for the project and move forward on a complete rehabilitation of the century-old system, part of the Milk River Project that provides irrigation water in the river.

The system is funded mainly by the water users, primarily Milk River irrigators.

Bills sponsored last year by the members of Montana's congressional delegation to switch the funding ratio, so 75 percent is picked up by the federal government and 25 percent by the users, are pending in Congress.

Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jennifer Patrick said Monday the cost share has been a struggle and getting that pushed through.

Daines said they'll have to continue to make this project as quantitative as possible.

"I think it's going to be to ultimately get some heads in a room and just say, you know we got to do the right thing here," he said. "... My experience in D.C. has been is you don't just let up, you just continue to push and at some point they just say 'OK, we got to resolve this issue."

Phillips County Extension Agent and St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Co-Chair Marko Manoukian said that, right now, they need to move forward in fixing the drops, which will take about $10 million to $12 million to fix both.

"If we go through the analysis to determine what cost share we should have on the drop of the diversion structure if that comes back even at 75- 25 we're going to have come with another $12 million and the irrigators don't have it," he said. "... I don't want the legislation going forward that bankrupts the irrigators."

He said if they got the cost share to be 75-25 on all the assets - the two drops and the diversion structure that would be $12 million.

"We could probably handle that," he added.

Or the diversion has to be a whole-federal cost, no local cost, he suggested.

Manoukian said the diversion itself costs about $50 million to fix.

Daines asked how much of a voice does Canada have with this project as it runs through their country as well.

The group discussed that Canada has been concerned about the amount of water it can hold and serve the Milk River later.

Patrick said people from Canada's board have been down to visit and tour the St. Mary Diversion.

She said in means of Canada's voice on the board, she thinks it is government-to-government.